The wonderful experience of living abroad

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The wonderful experience of living abroad

The wonderful experience of living abroad

by :

Emma Douty

Have you ever travelled abroad for a short holiday and said to yourself: ‘I could really see myself living here someday’? Or ever read about a foreign culture and thought: ‘I belong in a place like that’? Millions of people around the world have taken that big step and are living in a different country to the one that they grew up in. They have jobs, they study, and they even have their own families there. So, what made them take the leap and move abroad?

One of the most significant reasons is that a foreign culture may be more suitable to your personality, attitude, and beliefs than your native one. Many people are attracted to another country because they like the way they do things, their social codes and traditions, for example. It could be to do with the way in which people interact with one another, or the music, the festivals and celebrations, the history, the art, and not forgetting the food! It is wonderful to go and live abroad in order to be immersed in a culture that is extraordinary to you, where you can experience things that wouldn’t be on offer at home.

Another motivation for the move is for work or study opportunities. Your perfect job or degree may just be waiting for you over there, in need of your skills, knowledge and ambition. Speaking another language will more than double your chances of such an opportunity, as more and more employers are looking for bilingual people to send over to their offices abroad. If you are reading this, then you are well on your way to making this dream a reality, as speaking English will open many doors and could mean the path to a life in the UK, USA, Australia, and many other countries.

Moreover, living abroad is an enriching experience because it forces you to adapt to things that are unfamiliar and unusual to you. You become independent and open to new, exciting, or terrifying challenges that you would never have encountered in your home country. And that is the most rewarding of all: the opportunity to learn and develop as a person, because you will discover things about yourself that you may not have known before; your beliefs, your passions, your character. Through interacting within a foreign society, your eyes will be open to all sorts of aspects of life that would be difficult to learn in your native country.

These are just a couple of the many reasons why people choose to buy that one-way ticket and establish themselves in a foreign country. It may be temporary, it may be forever, but one thing that is guaranteed is that you’ll never look back.

I have actually lived abroad. My father travels a lot due to his job, so we had to accompany him there. I was born and lived for four years in France(Paris). I liked there very much, but then we had to move to Spain because of mum's business and I spent there about ten years. Then we moved to Turkey for a while(Mum is an archaeologist)due to her business, and finally, settle in Serbia for last three years. It's a little hard for me to speak Serbian now, because I was born and lived in other countries, but I am learning it now. I have always communicating in English, French, Turkish and Spanish. I liked living there. France is amazing, I spent my first years there and finished primary school in Spain. I started to go to high school in Turkey, which is the most common with Serbia. I had to speak four languages in four countries and it was very hard to do. At the moment I am attending the second grade of high school, but my teachers teach me in Spanish. I have friends from whole the world, but the closest friend of mine is a Spaniard girl. I used to move a lot, but living abroad is still an amazing experience and I wouldn't change it for nothing. It had provided me world wide friends, getting to know about other cultures and learning languages.

Hi Something nice!
Thanks for telling us about the countries you've lived in. Wow! You've moved around a lot but it sounds like it's been a great experience. :)
Best wishes, Jo (LearnEnglish Teens Team)

i would like just for one day to live abroad
i think is a beautiful and amazing experience
to live abroad one day does mean for me a day without my mum because she always said me what to do and not to do:)
i like ema article

Hi ann_gemini,
Pleased to hear you like this post. I'll try to answer your question. The post is written in quite a neutral style. It's neither very formal nor very informal! The first paragraph is quite chatty and is written directly to the reader, which is suitable for informal texts. However, later on in the post we do see some words which are usually used in more formal texts such as 'moreover'. On the whole I'd say it's a well written text in a neutral style. We're soon going to add a new section to help you with writing where you will be able to learn more about different writing styles.
I hope this helps for now.
Jo (LearnEnglish Teens Team)

I do agree with the thoughts expressed here. I think I might live abroad one day, it would be a great opportunity. But I will surely come to visit my own country and town sometimes, because I was born here and will never forget this place :)

Nice way to explain the thinking of living abroad. nice work please keep it up. Most of the people want to know about the others country's cultures so that is nice way to give them information about their desiring countries.

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Our Magazine is written by young people from the UK. Each year we select a new group of bloggers, from the British Council’s language assistants, who share their experiences of learning languages and living abroad. The views and opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the LearnEnglish Teens team.